Wednesday, April 09, 2014

Again on Sy Hersh's report

A nice post
from Interventions Watch,
assessing the backwards and forwards on Seymour
Hersh’s latest investigation suggesting that Turkey
was behind the sarin gas attack on Ghouta last
August.I would go
a little further. What I find irritating is seeing
so many people who should know better invest their
energies in abusing Hersh and his research. He is a
lone journalist, even if one of the best, and one
who has not been able to find a bigger publication
than the LRB willing to publish his last two essays.

Nearly two days after the London Review of Books published a
lengthy exposé by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh
detailing efforts by the Turkish government to stage a provocation to
bring the US military directly into the civil war in Syria, the US media
has blacked out the report.Hersh, who has authored groundbreaking investigative reports
uncovering US atrocities, including the My Lai massacre during the
Vietnam War and the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib during the Iraq
war, titled his article on last August’s sarin gas attack outside of
Damascus “The Red Line and the Rat Line.”The “red line” refers to President Obama’s threat to attack Syria if
the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad used chemical
weapons. The “rat line” was a CIA-organized supply chain running from
Benghazi, Libya through southern Turkey and into Syria, which was used
to smuggle weapons to the Syrian “rebels.”[. . .] The article describes efforts by the Turkish government of Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to assist Syrian “rebels” of the al-Nusra
Front, an Islamist force linked to Al Qaeda, in staging the poison gas
attack on Ghouta on August 21, 2013.Hundreds died in the atrocity, which the Obama White House seized on as a casus belli
to bomb Syria. Faced with deep divisions within the American state and
problems mobilizing US allies in Europe, and broad popular opposition to
a new war in the Middle East, Obama eventually pulled back and in
September accepted a face-saving deal brokered by Russian President
Vladimir Putin for the supervised destruction of Syria’s chemical
weapons stocks.The Syrian government denied responsibility for the Ghouta attack and
blamed the “rebels,” who had every reason to carry out the action,
which coincided with the arrival of United Nations weapons inspectors in
Damascus to investigate previous gas attacks. At the time of the
attack, Syrian government forces were retaking areas previously held by
the US-backed opposition, which was in disarray and on the point of
collapse. It desperately needed a supposed government atrocity to
provide a pretext for direct US military intervention against the Assad
regime.Hersh’s report substantiates the Syrian government’s claims, using
documents and accounts from US intelligence and military sources. It
also provides evidence that President Obama, Secretary of State John
Kerry and other US officials knowingly lied to the American people when
they insisted that only the Assad regime could have carried out the
Ghouta attack and that US intelligence agencies had proof that Syrian
government forces were responsible. (See: New exposé by Seymour Hersh: Turkey staged gas attack to provoke US war on Syria)

See, unlike dickless Robert Parry, Patrick Martin can tell the truth.

If you haven't read Hersh's article already, make a point to now. And maybe e-mail it to some friends.

Tuesday, April 8, 2014. Chaos and violence continue, Nouri continues
bombing the homes of civilians, the IHEC wants voters to risk their
lives while the IHEC itself stays safe and sound, John Kerry appears
before a Senate Committee days after the Inspector General notes the
State Dept can't account for $6 billion but only one senator wants to
ask about that, and much more.

Opponents of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki broadened the coalition
of groups seeking to prevent him winning a third term in office on
Monday, as the campaign for the parliamentary elections at the end of
this month reaches its peak.Moqtada Al-Sadr, the leader of the Shi’ite Sadrist Movement who
announced his retirement from politics in February, returned to the
political scene on Saturday in a meeting with the leader of the Islamic
Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), Ammar Al-Hakim, aimed at coordinating
the positions of the ISCI and Sadr’s Al-Ahrar bloc in the run up to the
elections on April 30.Analysts say Al-Ahrar is likely to win the backing of voters and
politicians who have previously backed Maliki’s State of Law Coalition,
the other leading Shi’ite bloc, partly because the founder of Maliki’s
Al-Da’wah Party was Moqtada’s uncle, the revered Shi’ite cleric Mohammad
Baqir Al-Sadr.

Dar Addustour reports
that IHEC's Muqdad al-Shuraifi held a press briefing with the Supreme
Security Committee in Baghdad today in which he announced that not all
areas of the Sunni-dominated Anbar Province will be able to vote because
the IHEC will not send staff and supplies into areas they deem
unstable. That's hilarious and sad at the same time. Baghdad will be
allowed to vote, its inhabitants will vote in polling stations
throughout the city. But Baghdad's experienced high levels of violence
-- see-sawing with Falluja in the last nine months for who was most
violent. But Baghdad will be allowed to vote.

March 31st, All Iraq News reported,
"The employees of the Independent High Electoral Commission in Siniya
district of nothern Tikrit have resigned due to the threats of the armed
groups."

But Tikrit will be allowed to vote.

It's really hard to believe that the decisions are really just about
fear of violence. It's hard to believe that the strong opposition to
Nouri isn't part of the reason. (Yes, Tikrit is Sunni dominant. It saw
protests against Nouri -- as did Sunni dominant Mosul. But the
protests were nothing like the ones which took place in Anbar.)

But if it really is about fear of violence, possibly it's about the fear
that Nouri's military will start bombing the polling centers.

After all, today NINA reports,
"23 civilians killed and wounded due to the resumption of
indiscriminate shelling by army forces of the residential neighborhoods
of Fallujah city today." Five dead -- including one child -- and
eighteen injured. And when does the world call out Nouri's assault on
the civilians of Anbar? Every day brings news of more people in Falluja
killed and wounded by Nouri's bombing of residential neighborhoods.
This is a War Crime. Sometimes, as over the weekend, it also includes
bombing of hospitals in Falluja. War Crimes as well. But the same
White House that wants to convince you that Putin is 'evil' but they
really, really care about human rights? That same White House is arming
Nouri al-Maliki and looking the other way as he terrorizes the people. Anadolu Agency quotes Falluja General Hospital spokesperson calling today's shelling "the most violent." Iraqi Spring MC reports that
the military is also shelling residential areas in Abu Ghraib's Khudayr
Zawbaa Village. But there's silence from world leaders. No one will
condemn it and the White House keeps providing thug Nouri more weapons.
And they aren't the only ones. All Iraq News reports, "Iraq will purchase 12 Mothballed L-159s combat planes from the Czech military."

Nouri's armed to the teeth. It's the Iraqi people who are defenseless.

And now certain areas of Anbar will be robbed of their legal right to vote.

This complete nonsense. April 29th will see the security forces vote
early across Iraq -- and probably ome of the elderly. Right now, the
IHEC should be working on mail-in ballots for any area they're about to
rob of the right to vote.

It's really telling that instead of working to find an alternative means
to ensure everyone has the chance to vote, the IHEC immediately works
to shut down the vote.

If it's not safe enough for polling stations in certain areas, how do
you expect people from those areas to travel -- by foot or by car -- to
alternative areas?

That's insane and, if it happens, a lawsuit needs to happen.

The IHEC has security. With security, they're not comfortable in
certain areas but they think an alternative is having many people travel
through those 'unsafe areas'?

That's insane.

If they're not opening the polling centers in an area because of
'violence,' then they don't need to shift the burden onto the people
living in those areas.

The IHEC want them to hike through these 'unsafe areas'?

The IHEC needs to do mail-in ballots for those in 'unsafe areas' or they
need to face a lawsuit for requiring people to go through areas the
IHEC declares unsafe just to exercise their legal right to vote.

Iraq Times reports that there will be 45 voting centers in Iraq but outside of Anbar Province for those who have fled Anbar due to the violence.

Dar Addustour notes
the rumors that Moqtada's bloc is uniting with Ammar al-Hakim's Islamic
Supreme Council of Iraq and with Speaker of Parliament Osama
al-Nujaifi's bloc to create a coalition that would be large enough to
prevent Nouri al-Maliki from getting a third term. Yesterday, Kitabat reports
on a new rumor that Moqtada, Ammar al-Hakim and Speaker of Parliament
Osama al-Nujaifi have a secret agreement to band together to form a
coalition government after the election -- one that would leave Nouri in
the dust.

On the elections, As Sheik (Dar Addustour) pens
a column where he offers that the Independent High Electoral
Commission has done little to nothing with regards to raising awareness
about media and harnessing it. He points out that voters need to know
who's running, what the issues are and that media can provide this
information. He points out that increased information should lead to
increased participation. Not everyone has access to the internet, he
notes, and there is also a literacy problem that demands more work be
done by and with the media.

Yesterday, Diana Moukalled (Asharq Al-Awsat) noted:Iraqi MP Hanan Al-Fatlawi banged her hand on the table during a TV
program on which she appeared, speaking angrily but effortlessly, and
said: “For every seven Shi’ites killed, we want seven Sunnis [killed] in
their place.”Of course, the seriousness of the situation which compelled Fatlawi
to make such a statement is diminished by her words. An Iraqi
parliamentarian has dismissed the authority of the constitution and the
law to declare that the time has come to implement the principle of “an
eye for an eye” to manage the sectarian conflict that is currently
raging in Iraq.

The media uproar which followed the Iraqi MP’s comments did not deter
her or encourage her to retract her comments, and the echoes of her
statement remained loud in the public arena. To top it off, Fatlawi is a
member of the State of Law parliamentary coalition led by Prime
Minister Nuri Al-Maliki.

Furthermore, politician Mishaan al-Jabbouri, who lives in exile in
Syria, made various pre-election calls for the “liberation of Iraq from
the Kurdish occupation.” A number of in-absentia judgments over terrorism accusations were passed against Jabbouri over these statements.Such statements are nothing new for the Iraqi electoral scene. For
years, politicians have taken advantage of national and sectarian
affiliations to gain support, and there has been a continuous dispute in
Iraq over ruling out candidates because they did not meet the condition
of “good conduct” required by Iraqi law. In fact, the Iraqi judiciary
has strongly defended the decisions to rule out potential candidates.It should be noted that some decisions to exclude candidates from
elections in the past were made over statements that were less extreme
than those made by Fatlawi and Jabbouri. The majority of these decisions
were made based on cases that were not yet legally settled.

It is rather amazing that the IHEC -- which is supposed to be over this,
especially after their walk out and return -- hasn't banned both people
from running.

Mohammed Fahad al-Harthi (Arab News) observes, "The Iraqi parliamentary elections are due at the end of this month and
the Egyptian presidential elections next month. The Iraqi Prime Minister
Nuri Al-Maliki wants a controversial extension to his two-term rule
deemed as unconstitutional by many. Al-Maliki wants to stay in power and
have greater control over decision-makers in Baghdad. It is here that
the ballot box supports an illegal move. Al-Maliki will obviously argue
that the elections would be the litmus test of democracy in Iraq.
Elections are, without a doubt, a crucial element of democracy, but can
be misused to stoke racial, religious and sectarian divisions. The
question under these circumstances is whether they truly reflect the
will of the people."

Through yesterday, Iraq Body Count
counts 176 violent deaths for the month so far -- that's only the first
seven days.

The shocking prospects of Iraqi child brides as young as nine, legally
sanctioned marital rape, and restrictions on a woman’s ability to leave
her own home have also caught headlines around the world. UN officials
have denounced the legislation, as have civil society groups such as
Human Rights Watch. And they should continue to do so. International
bodies, including the United Nations and the World Bank, which recently signed
a loan agreement with Iraq to finance important infrastructure
improvements, should express their unambiguous concerns. The United
States should also be unequivocal in denouncing the bill.
Nongovernmental organizations such as Amnesty International and Human
Rights Watch should continue to track the issue closely.

Ayad Allawi, a former Iraqi prime minister, warned on Tuesday that approval of
the law would lead to the abuse of women. "It allows for girls to be
married from nine years of age and even younger," he said. "There
are other injustices [contained in it] too."
[. . .]Hanaa Edwar, a well-known activist and head of the charity Al-Amal ("Hope"
in Arabic), has campaigned against the law as a setback for women's rights
in a country that has struggled since the 2003 invasion.
"It turns women into tools for sexual enjoyment," she said. "It
deletes all their rights."

This morning in DC, the Senate Armed Services Committee held a hearing
to discuss the US active duty and reserve forces. Senator Carl Levin is
the Chair of the Committee. Senator James Inhofe is the Ranking
Member.

Chair Carl Levin: The
Department’s fiscal year 2015 budget request proposes end strength
reductions through fiscal year 2017 that would leave the nation with an
Active Army of 450,000, or 20 percent less from its wartime high of
569,000; an Army National Guard of 335,000, or 6 percent less than its
wartime high of 354,000; and the U.S. Army Reserve at 195,000, or 10
percent less than its high of 205,000. But these end strength numbers
assume that the defense budget caps will be increased by $115 billion
for fiscal years 2016 through 2019.

Appearing before the Committee were Gen Ray Odierno (Chief of Staff of
the Army), Gen Frank Grass (Chief of the National Guard Bureau) and Lt
Gen Jeffrey Talley (Chief of the Army and Commanding General of the US
Army Reserve Command).

In his opening remarks, Odierno broke from his prepared statement.

Gen Ray Odierno: Before I start, I just want to let the Committee
know as soon as we're done with the hearing, I'll be traveling to Fort
Hood to visit with the soldiers, family, commanders, those wounded and
will attend the memorial service tomorrow. Things continue to progress
there. I'm satisfied that -- with the over all -- as we continue to
investigate and look at this -- I'm satisfied that if we had not
implemented some of the lessons learned in 2009, the tragedy could have
been much worse than it was. However, we still have much to learn about
what happened and why and what we have to do in terms of our mental
health screening assessments as well as taking care of our soldiers.
And the Army is committed to thoroughly understanding what we must do
and the actions we must take. And we look forward to reporting to you
what we have found as we continue and conclude our investigations at
Fort Hood.

Those were his remarks on last week's Fort Hood shooting. Eleanor Goldberg (Huffington Post) sums it up, "On Wednesday afternoon, Ivan Lopez, 34, opened fire at Fort Hood in Texas,
killing three and injuring 16 before turning the gun on himself. The
violence was particularly disheartening because Fort Hood was the site
of the worst mass killing at an American military installation, which
left 13 people dead and more than 30 injured in 2009." Will Weissert and Danica Coto (AP) report, "On Friday, authorities formally identified the dead as 39-year-old
Daniel Ferguson, of Mulberry, Fla.; 38-year-old Carlos
Lazaney-Rodriguez, of Puerto Rico; and 37-year-old Timothy Owens, of
Effingham, Ill."

I wasn't at that hearing, a friend who was passed it on. I was at
today's Senate Foreign Relations hearing wasting my time -- or rather
the Committee and John Kerry wasting my time. Secretary of State John
Kerry was the only witness appearing before the Committee. Senator
Robert Menendez is the Committee Chair and Bob Corker is the Ranking
Member.

The hearing was a joke, a really bad joke.

Kerry denounced Venezuela's government for making 'dangerous choices.'
But Kerry didn't say one damn word about the War Crimes going on in
Iraq.

The US government is making dangerous choices -- but in doing so,
they're making very clear that they don't give a damn about democracy or
-- more important to the world -- they don't give a damn about humanity
which is why they installed and propped -- and continue to prop up.

Kerry tried to boast, "No other nation can give people the confidence
to come together and confront some of the most difficult challenges in
the same way that we are privileged to do."

They're not giving people that. Kerry can pretend all he wants but all
the US government is demonstrating is what it demonstrated under Bully
Boy Bush, a crass disregard for human rights and the law.

Kerry had the nerve to denounce Russia for "contrived" excuses. Forget
the Iraq War -- and the lies the US government -- including Democrats in
Congress -- told. Kerry screamed for war on Syria based on 'gassing'
people to death with 'chemical weapons.' But as Seymour Hersh's "The Red Line and the Rat Line," published by The London Review of Books over
the weekend makes clear, Kerry, Barack Obama and others were engaged in
propaganda to sell a war. (Somebody slide the article over to Senator
Ben Cardin -- his deep stupidity might be mitigated were he to read
Hersh's report.) (For more on Hersh's report see Mike's "Can dickless Robert Parry go to a nursing home already?" and Elaine's "Sy Hersh" -- also Marcia's "Polio" covered polio in Iraq.)

The State Dept wants approximately one billion for Iraq for the next
fiscal year and the hearing was on the budget. But Kerry didn't want to
discuss the big ticket item. No one did. Only one senator even said
the word "Iraq."

Yet . . .

On
the eve of the anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime on
April 9, 2003, the U.S. Embassy advises U.S. citizens to restrict
movements around Baghdad, including travel through Baghdad International
Airport. U.S. government and Embassy-affiliated personnel are
restricting their use of the Baghdad International Airport through April
12. Beyond this date, American citizens are encouraged to evaluate all
travel plans after reviewing the latest Embassy messages. If you have
an emergency, please call the American Citizen Services emergency line
at 0760-030-4888 or 0770-443-1286.

The
U.S. Embassy recommends that U.S. citizens in all areas of Iraq,
including the IZ, maintain a heightened sense of security awareness and
take appropriate measures to enhance personal and operational security
at this time. U.S. citizens are advised to keep a low profile; vary
days, times, and routes of travel; and exercise caution while driving
and entering or exiting vehicles.

Here's his full testimony on Iraq, "We've issued more special
immigration visas in Afghanistan -- and in Iraq, incidentally -- than at
any previous year." That was in reply to an Afghanistan question from
Senator Jeanne Shaheen. However, when she asked him about Iraq?

He didn't have a word for it, not even "incidentally."

He did say this.

Secretary John Kerry: And I want to thank you for the way this
Committee stands up for an active internationalist American foreign
policy. I spent enough time in Congress to know not to call anything
that costs billions of dollars a bargain. But when you consider that
the American people pay just one penny of every tax dollar for the $46.2
billion in this request, I think it's safe to and if you ad OCO
[Overseas Contingeny Operations] it's 50.1 -- I think it's safe to say
that in the grand scheme of the federal budget, when it comes to the
State Dept and USAID, tax payers are getting an extraordinary return on
their investment.

Pretty big words in many ways but especially when Friday brought the
news of the State Dept being unable to account for $6 billion. If
you're late to the topic, refer to the report by Karen DeYoung (Washington Post).

Only one senator wanted to raise the issue of the $6 billion missing dollars.

Senator Jeanne Shaheen: On a note that is not so positive, last week
it came to light that the State Dept's Office of Inspector General has
discovered that over the past six years contracts worth more than 6
billion dollars have lacked complete and -- in some cases -- no records
and that many of the files for contracts supporting our US mission in
Iraq couldn't be located. So I was wondering if you could tell us what
actions the State Dept is taking in response to the concerns that have
been raised by the Inspector Generals?Secretary John Kerry: Well let me begin by saying that the, uh, we
hadn't had an Inspector General at the State Dept for [stops speaking to
turn around and ask his staff a question] . . . What? [Continues
testimony] for three-and-a-half years or more there was no Inspector
General.

Pause.

The stupidity.

There's no excuse for it.

There wasn't an inspector general for Barack's entire first term.

After January 2008, there was no State Dept IG in Bully Boy's Bush's
final year of occupying the Oval Office. Since January 2008 until
September of 2013, the office was empty.

Now I might not want to own up to that before Congress too if I was in violation of the 1978 law requiring an IG.

Four years and nine months. That's the answer if you're just speaking
of Barack's tenure as US president. But the actual answer is that the
US State Dept was without an IG for five years and eight months.

It's really sad (a) that Secretary Kerry didn't know the answer on his
own and (b) that his staff he consulted mid-answer didn't know the
correct answer.

Senator Jeanne Shaheen: And I appreciate your swift action to try and --Secretary John Kerry: I decided that we needed -- It's important,
it's an important part of oversight. So I hired Steve Linick who is our
current Inspector General who came from FHFA [Federal Housing Finance
Agency] but who's also been a former federal prosecutor is an
outstanding attorney and person for the job. And-and I welcome the
oversight. That's number one. Number two, I began this process looking
at our liabilities. It came from my time here on the Committee [prior
to becoming Secretary of State, Kerry was the Chair of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee] -- when I traveled to Afghanistan and saw
the contracting and recognized the corruption that existed in
Afghanistan itself and other problems. So when I first came in, I told
folks we've got to really get a handle on what's happening here. What
we found is -- and what this Inspector General report confirms -- is
that there have been some problems in just paper work management. We
know where the money -- No money, no six billion dollars has been lost.
We-we --- The money is accountable. But it's keeping up with the
paperwork. Part of the problem is, we have learned, and this is really
important to the budget process, every single entity of government where
we're managing contracting is under-resourced, under-staffed and it's
hard to keep up with the paper. You say, "Well why not go electronic?"
Well some of these places electronic isn't exactly an option --
Afghanistan or some other places. But it takes people and so we are
under-resourced with respect to that. But we are on it the Deputy
Secretary of State for Management is pursuing this and we will have a
report for the Inspector General showing exactly where they are and
where they are going and this is a good process. And I think people
should welcome this kind of oversight and process and get on top of
things.

Followers

About Me

I'm Michael, Mike to my friends. College student working his way through. I'm also Irish-American and The New York Times can kiss my Irish ass. And check out Trina's Kitchen on my links, that's my mother's site.